Bitcoin sportsbook Nitrogen Sports reviewed
By: SBR | Wednesday, September 24, 2014
 Bitcoin price chart in USD
Bitcoins are becoming more and more popular with retail vendors and that includes bookmakers. The biggest deterrent for users is the relatively volatile fluctuations of the digital currency. As of September 1, one BTC was worth $479.63, but at three weeks later that number has fallen to $422.92. Benefits of perceived anonymity and lower transaction fees may not be enough for those who don’t want to gamble on their currency as well as their team. But, bookmakers are recognizing that bitcoins are becoming mainstream and want to tap into the growing interest.  Over 15 online betting sites that take bitcoin are now covered by Sportsbook Review. That number is expected to double by the end of the year. One of the highest profile bitcoin sportsbooks is Nitrogen Sports, who SBR has completed an initial review on.

Nitrogen Sports opened December 4th, 2012
Nitrogen Sports opened December 4, 2012. It began as a typical bookmaker with the website NitrogenSports.com. Bitcoin was not offered. eWallets such as Skrill was the primary deposit method. Nitrogen tells SBR they struggled to attract players in the first year. Players are rightfully quick to distrust new online sportsbooks as possible fly-by-night operations or scammers that are not properly funded. It was not until March of 2013 that Nitrogen Sports added bitcoin to their online cashier. At this time bitcoin did not yet command the same public attention. There weren’t bitcoin ATMs and a single coin was worth around $45, but the currency quickly climbed in popularity and value over the coming months, skyrocketing to its all-time high of $1,151 later in the year. During this "bitcoin boom" period, Nitrogen claims that there was a drastic flip in currency volume among their users where bitcoin commanded 95% of all transactions. That statement is likely misleading as the new book was not talked about until it was in the context of being a bitcoin bookmaker. In November 2013, Nitrogen launched an .eu website which exclusively handled bitcoin transactions. Nitrogen later took the .com website offline and returned all USD balances. Those players were invited to use bitcoin.

Location & Software
Nitrogen Sports operates out of San Pedro, Costa Rica and has provided SBR with the address of their headquarters which SBR intends to confirm. The data servers which process wagering and transactions are also hosted in Costa Rica. Nitrogen’s marketing office is located in Canada. Nitrogen tells SBR that the sports wagering software is proprietary, designed in-house by engineers. Screenshots of the sports wagering platform are available at the bottom of this report. The sportsbook partnered with Cubeia Social to begin offering a poker platform last week.

Deposits & Withdrawals
Nitrogen provides a unique bitcoin address for instant deposits. The minimum deposit is .001 BTC or 42¢. Deposits are credited instantly. Due to the rapid fluctuations in BTC value, players should understand that all transactions including wagers are done via BTC. Unlike the online sportsbooks who also accept traditional currencies like USD and EUR and convert bitcoin deposits to a player’s country currency, all wagering and transactions in and out of Nitrogen are entirely through BTC. This means that aside from the performance of individual wagers, it is very likely that a withdrawal of any amount in BTC will be worth more or less than the amount deposited. SBR asked the shop if they had plans to add to their cashier options. Nitrogen is considering adding other virtual currencies in the future, and has no plans to return to traditional processors such as eWallet or credit card. The sportsbook educates new players on how to get started with bitcoin by linking prospective clients to a third party website which provides information on existing bitcoin exchanges where BTC can be bought and sold. Depending on the user's country, there are a number of different bitcoin exchange sites to choose from. BTC can be purchased with wire transfer, check, credit card, or through a Person to Person service like Western Union. Users can also use Skrill, Paypal, Webmoney, and many other mainstream options.

Withdrawals are reported to take an average of 30 seconds and are processed with no fees. SBR asked Nitrogen how it protected itself from abuse without human review on all payouts. Nitrogen states that certain factors or red flags will cause an account to be manually reviewed: One example cited was unauthorized access to an account. Player wagers on "e-Sports" (video games) will also be subject to manual review, as post times can lead to wagering disputes. Wagers on large professional sporting events like the NFL and MLB are generally not subject to review. There is no maximum payout per week and management has claimed that they frequently process 60 BTC transactions ($25,000).

Wagering Markets & Risk Management
The current wagering limits on each event are posted alongside the market. NFL games typically open with a limit of approximately 2 BTC ($840) and increase up to 10 BTC ($4200) before kickoff. Nitrogen Sports does not lower player limits for winning and has stated that a player's account has never been closed due to winning or wagering style. In fact it would be impossible for Nitrogen to do so considering there are no account details other than the account ID associated with the bitcoin balance. Staying true to the anonymous principles of bitcoin - the currency which their business has been built upon - Nitrogen does not request this information from their players. This includes not requiring players' full names, home addresses, driver's license or passport, or any of the standard pieces of personally identifying information normally required by online sportsbooks. Users will receive an auto-generated account if it is their first browser visit. Even with conservative limits it is a risky approach for a sportsbook that deals less than full juice pricing. Nitrogen does not offer a signup bonus and management tells SBR there are no plans to offer one. Nitrogen's wagering menu is expansive: The cart includes 50+ international soccer markets, tennis, cricket, rugby, combat sports, volleyball, and all American sports markets including proposition wagers. In addition to the standard sportsbook, there is a member driven betting exchange where users can back and lay offers against one another.

Financial Backing, Management & Player Disputes
The sportsbook backers are essentially unknowns currently. SBR confirmed there are multiple owners. Nitrogen shared some details on the nature of their financial backing but has requested this information be kept off the record. Co-founder James Hampelton serves as the day to day manager of all Nitrogen Sports operations. He has no prior work history with past gaming companies.

SBR has assigned an initial rating of B, which is relatively high for a sportsbook with less than two years of experience. The primary reason for the high mark is the lower risk to player funds… when used correctly. Nitrogen Sports does not need to hold player balances. Players can redeem their balance after each wager is graded. There are no limits to transactions a player can make. The high availability of funds also means players will be able to provide constant feedback to SBR and each other on forums like SBRforum and throughout the bitcoin communities. Players do need to consider that this is a new bookmaker with little history and company transparency. Unlike other bookmakers who may have trouble with Neteller or any other ewallet processor and may have a legitimate excuse or ability to reroute funds, Nitrogen’s entire model rests on its ability to move bitcoins. If it can hold player confidence with immediate transactions its business is likely to grow. A slow-pay within this model will have an instant impact and all SBR and fellow players the ability to draw conclusions rather quickly.

SBR has created a bitcoin reviews guide of the sportsbooks first to support the currency which aims to capture betting features and background information most likely to be relevant to sports bettors. While the guide is presently in a developmental stage, SBR has actively encouraged readers to submit their feedback on what matters to them when evaluating bitcoin betting sites

Hi Gogo ppp,

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Dear Sir,

We regret you are among the clients currently unable to reach our site. Pinnacle Sports is experiencing a DOS attack which, unfortunately, are becoming more prevalent events in all technology based industries.

Our IT Department is working diligently to resolve the issue and restore access to the site.

Unfortunately, we do not have an estimated time when the site may be reachable.

In the interim, please try this alternative IP address to access the site, 216.152.164.80. Please note that we cannot guarantee it will remain available.

Once the site is restored, please again use http://www.pinnaclesports.com to access your account.

We sincerely apologize for the interruption on our service.
Kind regards,

Customer Service Department
Pinnacle Sports

Hey Harib!

So sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you for letting us know.

Our technical team are looking into it and I will PM you with a suitable explanation and solution as soon as possible.

We certainly can do better than this and your feedback is crucially important to us.

Thanks again,
BetVIP

Thanks for the offer, but they are very communicative, they always reply on the chatbox. I got another 0.5btc the other day, so at least they're paying some.

Could use some help with the SBO case, tho that's pretty much a lost cause as they don't even care to deal with SBR. Having said that, why do you still have them as C? I've never experienced or heard a sportsbook pull the shit they did. They should be F-.

SBO as in sportsbettingonline.ag. See the SBR link above or look at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfNPZ0zF3FQ .

Nitrogen Sports Goes Public To Combat Extortion, Blackmail and Slander
by Ian DeMartino @ 2014-09-25 07:40 PM
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Nitrogen Sports appears to have been the subject of a continual and aggressive blackmailing and smear campaign that they are attempting to bring to an end today by going public with the information. The hacker demanded Bitcoin in order to prevent DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks that were bringing down the site.

Nitrogen Sports posted a few key private messages on Bitcointalk that showcase the alleged blackmailer's demands. Additionally, we have been handed private messages and email logs that reveal more details, including that the alleged hacker, who goes by the name "DD4BC" on Bitcointalk, threatened to reveal the website to the authorities of the nation they are hosted in, and ominous comments about people the hacker believed to be relatives of Nitrogen Sports employees.


DD4BC has also been hopping on the Bitcointalk forums to complain about Nitrogen Sports' downtime, which he claimed to cause in the private chat log. In the public posts, he said he “loves” Nitrogen Sports and would hate to move to another sportsbook, but the private back and forth between him and Nitrogen Sports reveal a different story.

In the information we have been provided, DD4BC also claims that Nitrogen Sports competitors pay his extortion fees, which is why they do not suffer the same attacks as they have been lately. We have been told that Nitrogen Sports has been dealing with DD4BC's extortion attempts for a few months, dating back at least to July 31st.




DD4BC's continually asked for “2 BTC” with the threat that the price would go up to three bitcoins if Nitrogen Sports didn't pay up soon. Ironically, DD4BC took to Bitcointalk to complain about a “2 BTC withdraw” that he was waiting for. Nitrogen Sports gave us this comment on that claim:

At Nitrogen Sports, unfortunately we don't consider extortion attempts to be withdrawals.
The address listed in DD4BC's alleged recent extortion attemps do not have any transactions associtated with it at press time. We were given another address 1H2bstU3yCpqJyrNzHSrnperZnTMSwLa5K which was purportedly used by the hacker back in August. He transfers the funds to what appears to be a mixing service.

There is bound to be some shadowy dealing and nefarious happenings whenever you are talking about things that exist in the gray market, like gambling. The alleged blackmailer likely feels safe that Nitrogen Sports will give into his demands because of that murky legal situation. While it is unlikely the police would be able to track down this blackmailer, it is clear that online casinos have reason to avoid involving law enforcement.



That said, online gambling was one of the first real use cases of Bitcoin. One that is significantly more useful than the other early use case of Bitcoin in bringing in mainstream adoption. There are millions of people around the world who would never order something off of darknet sites like The Silk Road, but would absolutely love to drop their local sports bookie or online gambling site for something safer like Bitcoin casinos. While no one owes anyone anything after an agreement (like a bet) is fulfilled, the Bitcoin economy would not be where it is today without the gambling market. The extortionist is therefore indirectly attacking Bitcoin's very usability.




Nitrogen Sports. can't turn to the police, it likely wouldn't be effective even if they did. So, perhaps turning to the community for answers is a better option. Witch hunts are never a good thing and vigilante justice should not be encouraged. However, if you think you have any information on DD4BC's identity, you are encouraged to share it with Nitrogensports before posting it in a public matter. You can reach them at here . Other casinos who have also been victim of DD4BC's alleged crimes are encouraged to come forward as well.

Did you enjoy this article? You may also be interested in reading these ones:

Nitrogen Sports, the Largest Bitcoin Sportsbook, Adds Poker, Full Interview Inside
Coinbase Case Demonstrates the Pitfalls of Regulatory Compliance
Breakout Coin's Unique Proposition: An Altcoin Usable Upon Release

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